Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - October 2008

Our gardens may seem the same from year to year, but they never really are.

There are always a few surprises.

My biggest surprise for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day this October 15th is that I still have a bright, green healthy tomato plant with new blooms on it.

A month ago, this tomato plant, like most of the vegetable garden, seemed destined for an early visit to the compost bin, after a very dry August and September.

Instead, it is showing me what a little bit of rain followed by a few warm days will do to perk up a plant, and a gardener.

But, alas, it isn't going to last. After near record high temperatures this past weekend, by Friday our high temperature will be 57 F. I'm sure a frost is in the near future, too.

Elsewhere in the garden, there are some mums still blooming.

These will still be blooming in November, and will join some pansies that I planted in September as the last bits of color in the garden as we head into the winter.

The asters started a big show just a week or so after the last bloom day in September.They are a little beyond peak now but are still attracting quite a few bees.

Back out in the vegetable garden, the nasturtiums also made a comeback after some recent rain.I like how they add some late fall color to the otherwise dreary vegetable garden so I'll plant these again next year. Plus, look how pretty that variegated foliage is. I love variegated foliage.

And here's the last "new" bloom in my garden, the toad lilies, Tricyrtis hirta.The toad lilies aren't particularly showy, but I like freckled flowers and plant names like "toad lily", so I'll always try to have some in my fall garden.

The rest of the garden is spotted with some straggly, leftover flowers... a rose or two from my one rose shrub, a few blooms on some Potentilla, some coneflowers, a confused daylily, to mention a few.

It's not the absolute end of the garden for this year, but it is getting pretty close. I'm going to try to nurture a few of the flowers along, so that perhaps what Elizabeth Lawrence said, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year”, can be true at May Dreams Gardens, too.

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What's blooming in your garden in October? Join us for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day by posting on your blog about the blooms in your garden on the 15th of the month, then leave a comment here so we can find your blog and stop by for a virtual visit in your garden. All are welcome to participate!